Minimum Wage Isn’t Killing Capitalism

In response to the letter of January 20 stating that the minimum wage is killing capitalism.

I believe the writer is either uninformed or insensitive to the growing poverty in the United States. Contrary to what most people think less than 20% of people earning minimum wage are under 25. The vast majority of those earners are women and those with families. The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and has not helped to prevent poverty in this country. The US leads the developed world with the largest income gap, and it is continuing to grow according to the 2010 census.

In 1980 CEO pay was 42% more than the average employee, in 2011 it is 380%. The top fast food restaurants had annual earnings of 32.4 Billion to 8.4 B, while Walmart had earnings of 15.7B. Surely these Corporations can afford to pay their empoyees a liveable wage, which according to the bureau of Labor Statistics should be $13.25 and would raise millions of workers out of poverty.

Studies show that those Corporations would actually increase their earnings because their employees would then become their customers. Another point not talked about is that it is these employees who rely on food stamps and medicaid. The taxpayer is subsidizing these corporations huge CEO pay and profits.